NeTS: Medium: Collaborative Research: Scaling WLANs in Spectrum, User Density, and Robustness

该项目的目标是设计下一代无线局域网（WLAN），以满足对更多频谱、更高密度和更高鲁棒性的不断增长的需求，并向多千兆位每秒（Gbps）连接的愿景迈进。通过物理（PHY）和链路层创新的结合，该项目将设计第一个S-T（60千兆赫兹到太赫兹）WLAN，提供多Gbps和太比特每秒（Tbps）数据速率，支持下行链路和上行链路多用户多流通信，并提供强大的始终在线连接。项目成果与日常生活中使用Wi-Fi的广大人群相关。该项目旨在通过展示新兴和多样化频谱波段的新用例来为频谱政策提供信息。它将通过在新的和不同的频段中展示结果以及团队广泛的协作行业网络来影响未来的标准和行业。最后，该项目包括一个跨学科的教育计划，该团队包括多名来自代表性不足群体的研究生。该项目将通过三个综合研究方向，在频谱、用户密度和鲁棒性方面扩展当今的单用户毫米波Gbps WLAN，从而从根本上推动其发展。第一个目标是开发新的物理层技术，最大限度地利用S-T通信系统中可用的多千兆赫（GHz）宽信道。在下行链路中，提出了新颖的带宽分级调制，作为一种方式，使来自用户的同时传输在同一发射天线波束。在上行链路中，将设计新颖的多波束码本以增加路径分集，并使同一区域内的用户能够同时向公共接入点（AP）进行定向传输。第二个推力将首先探索在S-T波段中的多用户多流通信的经验限制。然后，它将设计和评估低开销的用户和波束选择协议，使下行链路和上行链路多用户多流通信在S-T无线局域网，利用分层调制方案和多波束码本从第一推力。第三个目标是设计第一个PHY辅助的链路自适应框架，以实现健壮的S-T WLAN。推进将开发算法，利用独特的物理层指标来诊断链路退化的原因，并执行细粒度的移动性和阻塞分类。这些算法将被用来确定何时触发自适应，并在不同的场景中选择正确的自适应策略。所有提出的解决方案都将在一个独一无二的测试平台上进行实验评估，该测试平台跨越三个不同的S-T频谱段- 60 GHz，300 GHz和1 THz。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The objective of this project is to design the next generation of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) that will meet the ever-growing demands for more spectrum, higher densities, and higher degrees of robustness, moving closer towards the vision of multi-Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) connectivity everywhere. Via a combination of physical (PHY) and link layer innovations, the project will design the first S-T (Sixty Gigahertz to Terahertz) WLAN offering multi-Gbps and Terabit-per-second (Tbps) data rates, supporting both downlink and uplink multi-user multi-stream communication, and providing robust always-on connectivity. The project outcomes are relevant to a very broad segment of the population who use Wi-Fi in their daily lives. The project aims to inform spectrum policy via demonstration of novel use cases of emerging and diverse spectral bands. It will impact future standards and industry through demonstration of results in new and diverse bands coupled with the team's extensive collaborative industry network. Finally, the project includes an inter-disciplinary education plan and the team includes multiple graduate students from under-represented groups.The project will fundamentally advance today's single user, millimeter wave Gbps WLANs by scaling them in spectrum, user density, and robustness via three integrated research thrusts. The first thrust will develop new PHY layer techniques that maximize the utilization of the multi-Gigahertz (GHz) wide channels available in S-T communication systems. In the downlink, novel bandwidth hierarchical modulations are proposed as a way to enable simultaneous transmissions from users within the same transmit antenna beam. In the uplink, novel multi-beam codebooks will be designed to increase the path diversity and enable simultaneous directional transmission from users within the same area towards a common access point (AP). The second thrust will first explore the empirical limits of multi-user multi-stream communication in S-T bands. It will then design and evaluate low-overhead user and beam selection protocols for enabling downlink and uplink multi-user multi-stream communication in S-T WLANs, leveraging the hierarchical modulation schemes and multi-beam codebooks from the first thrust. The third thrust will design the first PHY-assisted link adaptation framework to realize robust S-T WLANs. The thrust will develop algorithms that leverage unique PHY layer metrics to diagnose the cause of link degradation and perform fine-grained mobility and blockage classification. These algorithms will be leveraged to determine when to trigger adaptation and select the right adaptation strategies in different scenarios. All the proposed solutions will be experimentally evaluated on a one-of-its-kind testbed spanning three different segments of S-T spectrum - 60 GHz, 300 GHz, and 1 THz.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.